[TimS]

I'm using a CD-ROM/HighQualityMP3 -> Audigy -> Corda-HA1 -> HD-600/570 setup.

When I turn up the volume really high or when listening to some bass test tracks or a good HiFi test recording I can clearly see that this setup can show quite an impressive bass performance. But when listening to my music there's usually absolutely NO sign of any low frequencies. I already turned up the bass in the sound controls of my card to about 85%, but that makes it usually just barely noticeable.

i.e. very bass intensive music like Prodigy totally lacks ANY bottom end. I know some tracks from them which have absolutely earth shaking bass, exaggerated up to the level where it is just annoying. Listening to that on my setup sounds like there's not a single frequency below 200Hz. Since I own the CDs, I can't blame any MP3 compression, and I also can't imagine the HD-600/HA-1 combo has anything to do with that. I listened to the HD-500 and my own HD-570 but that didn't sound any better. They had a somewhat more midbass, but that wasn't really sounding good and I like the HD-600 better in every aspect. I really like the soundstage, clarity and imaging of the HD-600s, but that missing bass just removes some listening enjoyment. You hear a bassdrum and expect to hear some deep extended sound, but instead you just hear the high frequency part of it. Or rock music where the guitars kick in and you expect to hear that low vibrating sound that's so typical. And nothing comes out of your headphones. I tried equilizers etc., but that just distorts the sound and makes everything sound really really bad. So that can't be the solution.

I also own a pair of really cheap closed Phillips headphones. They sound like garbage, but they have a lot of bass. It is muddy, uncontrolled and boomy, but at least that part of the music is there at all. I would like to have the same level of bass just cleaner and sharper on my HD-600s. I think I'm not expecting an unreasonable amount of exaggerated bass, there's just something missing...

Any ideas what I could do to improve my listening enjoyment ?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[pedxing]

Have you tried playing your corda and heapdhones directly connected to a dedicated cd-player with your music? Sometimes the sound card and/or interconnects can be bad. This might not be your problem because you claimed your philips headphones play back the bass stuff to some degree of satisfaction.

 

[TimS]

I would, but unfortunatly I don't own any other sources than various PCs with soundcards and a TV ;-(

btw: The bass is pretty good when I listen at high volume levels. Unfortunatly I need to turn up the volume so high that it becomes very unpleaseant to listen to for anything else than very short periods.

 

[JaZZ]

Which player software do you use? Have you made sure that there's no equalizer activated?

 

[TimS]

I use WinAMP and Windows Media Player. There's no equilizer activated except the one of the Audigy itself where I raised the bass to 85%.

 

[Guyferd]

From my experience with Audigy, the card doesn't have alot of bass. I do not know about santa cruz coz I do not have them. But the audigy certainly lacks the warmth and punch in the lower frequency, also when I connect my creek obh11 +beyer dt770 pro, they are slightly bright and harsh . This is with winamp and no eq whatsoever(bass treble is default).

And, can you try connecting the corda straight to your soundcard? not through the cd rom headphone jack? Sometimes using the cd rom jack is a bad idea... you might wanna try it.

 

[TimS]

I never tried to connect my Corda to the CD-ROM output jack, this way I could only listen to CDs.

Hmmm, so you basically suspect my Audigy. I guess we all can agree on that the Audigy is a far less audiophile device than my Corda or my HD-600. As far as I can see the only real alternative would be the Terratec card. Most of my time I use my soundcard to listen to music, but ocassionally a good game grabs my attention. So I need a card that can handle current gaming sound standards like EAX and DirectSound3D. This unfortunatly rules out any real audiophile soundcards... Or is there any high-end soundcard with game support that I'm not aware of ?

greetings,
Tim

 

[gerG]

Hi Tim. Your symptoms sound like a classic bad connection in the headphone lead. There are a couple of ways that it can happen, like a broken/bad ground connection, or a short between the left and right channels. I would try the phones in another source to check them out. If nothing else, go to an audio store.

I had an HD600 cable fail in exactly this manner. Same for an Ety cable. In both cases the fault happened inside the 1/8" plug that connects to the source. Is there still stereo information present?


gerG

 

[DarkWolf]

If you want to spend the money to get a better sound card I think it wouldn't be a bad idea. I have a Terratec DMX 6-Fire and it's really nice. My music is really good and the gamming performance is much better than on my sound blaster. Don't let creative's marketing team fool you, eax is a load of ass. This card's positioning ability is WAY better than my old sound blaster. I tried Quake 3 and I couldn't belive how much more accurate it was. I would watch a wall where I heard someone running and they'd come out right when I thought they would. think it would be reliable enough to time a rocket too. Speaking of rockets, I found my self dodging rockets that were off screen.

But I'm not much into gamming any more, so I don't have much experience with a wide variety of games. But I listen to a ton of music and it was worth every penny. Plus the breakout box is really cool.

 

[fredpb]

I had the HD600's for years, and was not happy with bass.

The truly low end.

Then I got some HD580s. I broke them in with many many hours of "Baba Yaga" from "Mephisto and Co.", by Reference Recordings. A classical cd. I copied Baba Yaga until I had about 12 tracks of it on a home burnt cd.

Then I put it in an old Magnavox CD deck with a headphone out that sounded pretty good. Left it on for a couple of days.

The 580's had bass?????

Did it to the 600's .... they got bass!

Years of just regular playing did not break them in.

Need them LOWS for a LONG time. Start out with a low volume, then go up to just above normal listening level.

 

[wallijonn]

the reason why there's no bass is because it is setup for speakers and not headphones.

go to control panel -> audio HQ -> double click "Speaker". change speaker type to a headphone.

 

[Guyferd]

Can that boost the bass?
I doubt so. Forgive my ignorance but I have tried switching between the modes but they all sound the same

 

[kelly]

I can't speak for the Audigy but I currently use a Philips Acoustic Edge at work and when I use the analog out, it definitely rolls off the bass. I tried test tones through it via analog and then via my ART DI/O DAC. I'd though the particular headphone I was testing was rolled off in the lowest octave but it wasn't and through my DAC could produce clear sound down to 20hz.

The HD600 is a little rolled off on the bottom. Most people don't notice because the midbass is bumped up a little. An equalizer is one way to do that but the WinAmp equalizer is pretty poor. (I use WinAmp too so I've played with the EQ quite a bit.)

A better solution if you'd like to add more bass would probably be Meier's Analoguer with bass boost circuit, but I haven't tried it myself. There are some explanations of how that works on HeadWize along with some sample wavs to give you an idea. I would upgrade the source first if you can, though. Consider a DAC if you can afford one. Audiogon is a good place to find used ones if you're on a budget.

 

[TimS]

kelly:
Yup, I was thinking of a bass enhancer etc. But probably you're right that a source upgrade might be the better way to do it. Maybe a DAC, hmm, so many choices

Greg Freeman:
Sure, I absolutely got stereo. The entire setups sounds amazing, I'm very happy with it except the bass performance. I don't have a replacement cable or something, so I can't test anything ;-(

fredpb:
That's totally wierd, but I'll try to keep then running a night or two with some bass test tracks. Would be too cool if that could work, thanks !

wallijonn:
I tried that out when I got the Audigy and I totally hate the way that setting sounds. I prefer to not have my sound totally altered by some cheap DSP chip. But on the other side I got my treble at 70% and my bass at 85% since I can't stand the sound otherwise.

DarkWolf :
Quake3 doesn't support EAX but A3D so of course is the positioning better with the Terratec A3D compliant card. The point is just that the ONLY 3D surround standards that exists for PC games are simply EAX / DirectSound3D. With EAX definitively being more sophisticated. So there's no choice I can make. EAX or nothing ;-( But I agree with you, for music listening your card is most likely much better, too. Hmmm, I'm already sorry about my wallet.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

greetings,
Tim

 

[puppyslugg]

http://headwize2.powerpill.org/ubb/s...9&srch=audigy;